Op­era in 3 acts – Lib­retto by Gi­useppe Ad­ami, based on „Die Schwalbe“ (The Swal­low) by Al­fred Maria Will­ner and Heinz Reich­ert.

In mount­ing this rare work by Puccini the Deutsche Op­er Ber­lin has en­lis­ted the ser­vices of star ten­or Ro­lan­do Villazón, who has re­cently been at­tract­ing at­ten­tion as a dir­ect­or of op­er­as.

“Puccini’s writ­ing an oper­etta.” Though the whis­per might have sur­prised us today, it would hardly have raised eye­brows in 1913, a time when there was no clear di­vid­ing line between “ser­i­ous” and “en­ter­tain­ing” mu­sic. Pietro Mas­cagni, too, pro­duced an oper­etta and Rug­gero Le­on­cavallo began writ­ing them in 1906. Puccini did im­pose one con­di­tion, however, when the Carltheat­er in Vi­enna ap­proached him with the pro­pos­i­tion. No dia­logue!

Mag­da, an at­tract­ive cour­tes­an, evokes a swal­low in the ima­gin­a­tion of the poet Pruni­er. He proph­es­ies that she will fly off in the dir­ec­tion of the sun and love. Mag­da is in a re­la­tion­ship with the banker Ram­baldo, but then she meets Rug­gero, the son of a friend of Ram­baldo. Rug­gero is new in Par­is and is taken to Bul­li­er’s dance tav­ern by Mag­da’s and Ram­baldo’s friends. Mag­da ap­pears at the tav­ern in dis­guise and falls in love with Rug­gero. Ram­baldo ar­rives ab­ruptly, just as the couple are de­clar­ing their love for each oth­er. Mag­da form­ally breaks off her re­la­tion­ship with Ram­baldo, fore­go­ing his money. She moves to the Rivi­era with Rug­gero, where they live mod­estly. She has a bad con­science be­cause she has told her lov­er noth­ing about her pre­vi­ous life as the mis­tress of Ram­baldo. The lat­ter would be will­ing to for­give on con­di­tion that she re­turn to him. She is as re­luct­ant to take this op­tion as she is to stay with Rug­gero, to whom she has now con­fessed everything.

Din­ara Alieva, Mag­da
Al­ex­an­dra Hut­ton, Lis­ette
Charles Castro­novo, Rug­gero
Al­varo Zam­brano, Pruni­er
Steph­en Bronk, Ram­baldo
Noel Bouley, Périchaud
Mat­thew Newl­in, Gobin
Thomas Lehmann, Crébil­lon
Siobhan Stagg, Yvette
El­ben­ita Ka­jtazi, Bi­anca
Stephanie Lauri­cella, Su­zy
Carlton Ford, Mag­gior­do­mo

Ro­lan­do Villazón, stage dir­ect­or
Oper­n­bal­lett der Deutschen Op­er Ber­lin
Chor der Deutschen Op­er Ber­lin
Or­chester der Deutschen Op­er Ber­lin
Roberto Rizzi Brignoli, con­duct­or